Yesterday i was less productive than usual. I started off well, leaving the house by 8:15 am to hit Home Depot to return a clothesline (got a different one), then to Lowes to return a $7 hose nozzle (got a different one for .67) and then to Borders to pick up a DVD for someone i work with who couldn't find this movie near where he lives. Oh, and then dropped about $45 on groceries at Xpect Discounts. I got a box of 7 grain kashi grains for $2.48. When i got home, i realized i already had a box and since this store has price stickers on everything, i saw that the older box cost just $1.98.

I also noticed that at the same store, which is still dirt cheap compared to mainstream supermarkets, the pasta, which i got for ages at .69 a pound, is now selling for .99 a pound.

Prego pasta sauce is still a bargain there for $1.50 a jar.

Yesterday i made a 3 bean salad with canned beans (yellow, green, kidney and chickpeas), plus a chopped up fresh red pepper, plus some vinegar and sugar. Pretty good.

Mostly eating non-meat meals these days. Can't imagine what my food bill would be if i were buying red meat.

I had a hankering for peanut butter yesterday as well, so i made a peanut butter/sesame oil sauce over rice noodles. Umm, think i need to thin out the peanut butter more with water or something, cus it didn't spread as well as i'd like on hot pasta and it was quite filling. In fact, i skipped dinner after having that at around 3 pm The rice noodles became sort of a congealed glob after cooling so i hope i can still eat the leftovers.

I'm frustrated by 3 or 4 projects around here that aren't seeing much progress. One is a broken toilet. The water leaking noise seemed to be caused by the rubber flapper that fits over the drain; the old flapper rubber was basically disintegrating, so i thought for sure that was it. The 1st new flapper i got did not appear to stop the leaking noise so i got another one which requires you to completely drain and dry the tank so you can put an adhesive seal on the drain opening before putting on the new flapper cover, but when i was sopping up the last of the water, i could see water movement around the base of the other toilet valve where the water comes in. The water kept slowly seeping back in so i couldn't install the flapper. Maybe i need to replace that other part as well. I'm wondering if this has reached the point of being beyond my comprehension but i hate the thought of having to spend $100+ for a plumber and what will surely be a 10-minute fix.

Last night NASCAR racing had ursurped Cops on TV, so i spent a few hours of my saturday night stripping wallpaper in the bathroom.

I had a contractor over here last week to price a big job, though i have a fair amount of hesitation about proceeding with it. I wanted to know how much it'd cost to enclose my screened porch, which i enjoy so much. By replacing the floor to ceiling screen with a low (2 foot) wall and the rest of it vinyl windows with screens, i could likely extend the time i spend out there, instead of May through September, probably April through October.

So the cost would be putting in 4 very large vinyl windows, the kind you slide open from side to side, plus a 5th window on another wall that looks into my bathroom. It's the only non double-pane window left in the house, the original window from 1930; i'd like to replace it with a double hung with frosted glass so if someone's in the bathroom, you have privacy but without giving up the light that comes in from the porch.

It's a project i could afford to do, but i guess with the general state of the economy, i feel generally uncertain and anxious about expenses. Maybe partly becus it's just my single income. I've always operated on a pay as you go basis. In other words, i never borrow money, just defer a purchase until i save up for it. (I would just take the $ out of savings.) The downside of that, of course, is you may not get to enjoy something you've wanted. I figure if i stay in this house another 5 years, which i think there's a good chance will happen, it would be nice to enclose the porch now so i could enjoy it for that time, and of course, get some of that $$ back if and when i sold the house.

I don't plan to put heat in the porch, though once it's enclosed it would be easy to do and call it a sunroom. But to do that i'd probably have to let the town know i'm doing that, and then i'd pay higher taxes, so i'm happy to just enclose the porch. I havent' gotten an estimate from the guy yet.

My other concern about doing this job is that right now, when you're on the porch, you really feel like you're outside, probably becus the screen goes floor to ceiling. If i enclose it, i don't want it to feel like a room and i don't want to lose that outdoor feeling.

My friend and neighbor H. has a sunroom that this same builder did, so i'm going over there in a little while to really closely examine his workmanship. I've been in the room before; it's perfectly nice, but it does feel like a room, so i want to check the size of her windows for comparison.

I've been a little upset with my PCP. I had a physical a week ago and i suggested that maybe since they were taking my blood they should check for Lyme Disease, since i've been doing a ton of yardwordk, Lyme is rampant in my state and i'd been having nearly daily headaches. He agreed i should. He said he wouldn't call me prior to my followup appt. unless i tested positive, as of course we wouldn't want to delay treatment. So Friday when i got home from work at 6:15 pm, there was a message from the doctor at 6 pm saying i'm calling about your bloodwork results. Call the office on Monday.

I'm assuming my test results were positive. So why the heck didn't he give me a way to connect with him so i could get a prescription? I could have gotten started 2 days earlier, and apparently becus he didn't want to be bothered on a weekend, he didn't think it important enough. That's really something. I'll need to confirm that's the case, but if it is, i'm just about ready to stop seeing this guy after about 15 years. He's inconvenient anyway, with no weeknight or weekend hours and ALWAYS a 30 to 40-minute wait when you arrive. I'm really upset about the Lyme though. It seems irresponsible to me for a physician to let that go.